Invasive Plants A 16mm collective film by Le Ratoire All works on 16mm film In person only
NYC premiere of the 16mm film “Invasive Plants” by Le Ratoire, a filmmaking collective composed of members from two film labs based in France, namely: Katherine Bauer, Joyce Lainé, and Loïc Verdillon, from Atelier MTK in Grenoble, and Léa Lanoë, and Pierre Borel from Labo L’argent in Marseille.
Described by the collective as “a canoe odyssey down the Hudson River,” Invasive Plants is a 16mm film shot over the course of three weeks – between August 28 and September 18, 2023 – by the artists as they travel from Troy to New York City on the Hudson River and live alongside it. The images they collect on film — of animals, people, vegetation, industrial and natural landscapes, etc. — are developed at night using the invasive plants they encounter and the river’s water to process the film.
Le Ratoire, a name that in French hints at both the words “lab” and “failure,” is a group of artists coming together with the proposition of making a movie from start to finish almost as a single act, as a joint organism, often with any materials they have at their disposal, and in extremely little time. About their methodology for filmmaking the artists explain: “each film is defined by a particular set of parameters; both technical and, especially, situational.”
The screening includes four additional hand-processed 16mm films for both single and double projection, completed between 2019 and 2022 by the collective.
The five artists will be in attendance and available for a Q&A following the screening.
Advance Tickets: https://microscopegallery.ticketleap.com/invasive-plants-a-16mm-collective-film-by-le-ratoire/dates/Oct-08-2023_at_0700PM .
More info: https://microscopegallery.com/invasive-plants-by-le-ratoire/ .